End Of The World Sickness
by HuckingHarkness
Summary: This story fits in the time frame "Great now we have to avoid ourselves..." It's about how not all things that kill Jack do so immediately & with all Jack's time travelling- what could possibly cause this latest illness?


End of the World Sickness

October 2008

**End of the World Sickness**

Captain John Hart paused on the cusp of golden light, which swirled around him and turned to look over his shoulder where the five members of Torchwood stood. "Oh, by the way," he drawled, looking Jack straight in the eye, "D' I tell you? I found Gray."

Jack's breath hitched in his throat and froze on the night air. Everything around him faded away until he found himself home, in the 51st century. Ear piercing screams flooded his memory as his last moments with his long lost little brother Gray, played before his eyes; like a film in slow motion.

"Who's Gray?"

It was Gwen, always the first to jump in; show she cared. Emotions flashed across Jack's tortured blue eyes, but no one saw his face; just the strong, broad shoulders of their mysterious boss which gave away nothing of the turmoil inside his darkened soul. After a long pause to compose himself; Jack turned, his face impassive, "It's nothing. Let's get back to work." He strode off, leaving the other four members of his bewildered, team to follow on in silence. This was yet another of the mysteries surrounding their enigmatic leader, which they would probably never solve. But that was Torchwood with Jack in charge.

On the drive back to their underground base Jack and Ianto took the stolen red sports car, but unusually Jack jumped into the passenger seat, leaving Ianto to drive. "Are you alright, sir?" Ianto asked; he knew it was a stupid question. Jack didn't seem to hear him though, lost as he was in his own thoughts; with a sigh Ianto put the car in gear and followed the black SUV out of the high rise parking lot.

* * *

At first Jack ignored the slight dizziness, putting it down to this sudden crude time jump so soon after time travelling in the comparative luxury of the TARDIS. However, when less than an hour later, he had a throbbing headache and was loosing the entire contents of his near empty stomach to the toilet bowl, he began to wonder what was wrong. Throwing up was definitely not his style- he was from the 51st century, throwing up was plain old fashioned! He decided to get an early night and see how he felt in the morning; after all he did feel tired- for once.

Jack had been sat quietly at his desk all morning trying to get some work done, despite the near constant dry retching into his bin and the headache which had now spread to a dull ache through his entire body. His stomach felt like it was full of fire-worms from the Aduro Planet, writhing and burning away at his insides.

He was bent over his bin when Ianto walked in with a fresh mug of coffee. Not seeing Jack at first, he was immediately worried to find that morning's coffee untouched, sitting on his Captain's desk. Jack retched again and Ianto caught sight of his hunched frame. "Right, that's it- you are going to see Owen, right now!" Ianto met his pitiful gaze with blue eyes of steel.

He strode forwards and grasping Jack firmly beneath the elbow hauled him to his feet, where the older man swayed unsteadily for a moment. Ianto placed his left arm round Jack's waist and led him slowly out of the room, quietly admonishing himself for not noticing Jack was unwell. Despite the fact that there was no way he could have known until now.

"Jack! Are you okay? What's happened?"

It was Gwen, shouting from her work station, she sounded quite alarmed and stared as Ianto led the Captain past her and Toshiko, to the autopsy room, where Owen could examine him thoroughly. Jack nodded but didn't say anything; Ianto had shot him a murderous glare which clearly said _'you are __**not**__ fine, so don't even think about saying it!'_

Jack felt like an abused child. He had been forced to sit down on the cold, hard surface of the autopsy table for the past half hour, while he had his stomach poked and prodded by all manner of things, some of which he was sure were just Owen's punishment for not saying something earlier. Now, he was being interrogated by the doctor.

"Any other symptoms I should know about Jack?"

Owen interrupted as Jack went to shake his head, "–the truth!" he commanded in his firm, 'doctor voice'. Jack sighed before listing the symptoms; headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and no appetite- he hadn't even been able to stomach Ianto's coffee, which had inevitably been his downfall. The list was quite long Jack realised.

"Fuck Jack! When were you planning on coming to see me? When you dropped dead I suppose. What if what you've got is contagious?! You could have infected the whole bloody team!" Owen exclaimed. Jack at least had the decency to look contrite.

"Right, well I'll run some more tests, and we'll see when we get the results. For now I'm taking you off active duty unless the world is ending and only an Immortal Captain can save it- no arguments."

Owen was currently running every test he could think of on his boss- which was no mean feat when Jack wouldn't keep still. "Honestly Jack, your fidgeting is worse than a three year old!" he burst out, smacking Jack's hand as he reached for yet another gadget from the metal tray beside him.

Owen was currently waiting on the results of some of the tests, but the outlook so far wasn't looking too good. Jack's heart rate was more elevated than his normal, which was faster anyway and his white blood cell count was dangerously below what it should be. In his condition, if he caught a common cold it could quite easily kill him.

An alarm went off from the centre of the hub. "For God's sake Jack, get back here!" Owen yelled in exasperation as Jack took the stairs out of the medical bay three at a time, heading towards the source of the sound. "The weevil alarm going off does not constitute the end of the world!"

"It does if there're five of them running loose in Cardiff City Centre!" Jack shouted over his shoulder. His adrenaline had kicked in and he was feeling much better; for the moment. His headache was gone and there was no retching impulse.

"Come on Owen, let's go- you can leave that running while we're out," said Jack, taking the SUV keys out of his coat pocket and striding towards the cog door.

Jack at least relented to letting Ianto drive when Owen insisted, but that made him irritated and grumpy, so when they arrived he paired Owen with Ianto, before going off with Gwen and Toshiko himself; he knew it would annoy the doctor, who much preferred going with the girls and leaving Jack and Ianto to their own 'weevil hunting'.

The hunt was going well; together Owen and Ianto had caught two of the weevils fairly quickly, going after a third, while Gwen and Tosh were taking the one they had caught, which was out cold, back to the SUV together. Jack was on his own, tracking the last of the weevils. He had just caught a glimpse of it at the end of a long alley and was currently racing after it, his long military coat flying out behind him like a cape.

Jack soon caught up and tackled the hunched figure to the ground. It was bigger than the first one they'd caught and lashed out violently. Jack rolled out of reach just in time, before scrambling to his feet. The creature too had stood up and the two now circled, each sizing the other up. The weevil's wrinkled; snarling face stared menacingly at Jack, its teeth barred. Jack simply circled gracefully, his hard blue gaze never leaving those of the weevil.

When it sprang at him, he was ready and stepped left, allowing the weevil to slam straight into the brick wall behind him. Jack took out his last canister of weevil spray and a set of clamps. "You gonna come quietly big fella, or d'you want a bit more rough and tumble first?" The weevil growled and leapt, slightly to the left of Jack, pre-empting his previous tactic and landing squarely on Jack's shoulders.

The momentum threw both man and beast to the floor, but Jack managed to empty the can of Weevil Spray into the creatures face before they crashed to the ground with a sickening crunch. The impact knocked the breath out of Jack and he hit the back of his head, hard, against the ground.

The creature however, soon recovered from the effects of the spray and took advantage of Jack's momentary dazed state to slash him viciously across the chest with its long claws. The creature cut three deep wounds into Jack's smoothly defined torso.

Jack's pale blue shirt had been ripped to shreds beneath the claws and was very soon covered in pools of dark red blood. Jack growled, his adrenaline still pumping; still panting for breath, he used his free left foot as leverage and kicked out at the weevil that was crushing his chest. He sent it flying off him, in an almost graceful arc.

There was a tremendous crash followed by a cracking noise and the weevil made a sound between a whimper and a howl, before it was no more. It had caught the side of its head on a rusty old skip, the corner of which had fatally penetrated its skull at its most vulnerable point.

Jack lay where he had fallen, gasping for breath, trying not to breathe too deeply because the weevil had completely crushed his ribs, making it extremely difficult and painful for him to take even the smallest breath. He waited a few moments, allowing his body to repair his wounds. He felt strangely drained, exhausted and his head was spinning furiously.

Once he had left his body enough time to mend any broken bones Jack forced himself to raise his head and check on the weevil. As soon as he did, the pain in his ribs increased ten fold and the deep flesh wound on his chest burst open, squirting his own precious blood everywhere.

Jack cried out in agony and allowed his head fall back against the ground once more. He had just given himself enough time to see blood and what looked like brain matter on the corner of a rusty yellow skip, above where the dead weevil lay, in a pool of its own blood. So he was safe for now.

Jack concluded that his ribs were still broken and his chest wound had just gotten a whole lot more serious. Jack had no intention of bleeding to death, although if he could find his gun, shooting himself might be faster…

He decided he wasn't quite that desperate yet. Gingerly he reached up one arm towards his Comm. Device and activated it.

"Jack? Where are you? Ianto and Owen have just caught the last weevil; they're bringing it back to the SUV now. Tosh and I were about to come and give you a hand with that one."

"The weevil's dead Gwen, but you can give me a hand in getting outta here with this fellow. I'm two blocks down from the alley we found the first weevil. Tosh can pinpoint my location; but you'd better wait and bring Owen and Ianto with you-"

"Why?"

"Um… I've broken some ribs which are takin' a while to heal and I have a chest wound, which bleeds like hell every time I move a muscle, so I'm kinda stuck at the moment."

"Oh my God! What did you do? Are you okay?"

"Fine Gwen, absolutely fine. Just get Owen for me will you?"

But Jack wasn't fine. He was feeling worse by the minute and he knew that any second now he was going to pass out from the blood loss. Gwen activated her comm. link to Owen and Ianto, "Owen, Ianto, its Jack, something's happened. I don't know what, but he says he's not healing like he normally does. We need to go pick him up."

"On our way," Said Owen, following Ianto's lead and dropping the unconscious weevil they had been carrying between them, at his feet and racing the last block to the SUV, they could easily come back and fetch it later.

When they arrived, Gwen was already in the driver's seat with the engine running. She took off as soon as they had climbed in and raced towards Jack's location, following Toshiko's directions as she went.

When they arrived they found Jack lying where he had fallen, surrounded by a large pool of his own blood. He was pale and unresponsive. Gwen couldn't help thinking that they might be too late. Owen broke into her morbid thoughts, taking charge. He barked out orders; roughly stitching and dressing the three gaping wounds across Jack's chest before calling Ianto to give him a hand with sitting Jack upright, so he could strap up his many broken ribs.

Ianto just stood, frozen to the spot. He had never seen Jack so vulnerable, and certainly not with this much blood surrounding him. "Ianto! Give me a hand will you?" Owen, after receiving no reply from the Teaboy looked up. He noticed Ianto going into shock, his pale complexion and frozen expression.

Owen forced him to concentrate on the task at hand- he could go into shock once they had Jack safely in the SUV and all the weevils in cells back at the hub he said- except the one Jack had fought, Ianto would have to dispose of it, however he normally did that.

Jack came round while Ianto and Owen were in the process of carefully sitting him upright. He tried to help out, gritting his teeth at the pain, which ran like pins and needles over his skin and the constant throbbing across his chest; he couldn't decide which he preferred.

When Owen ripped the remains of his shirt off, Jack made a feeble quip about him getting naked, but he soon fell silent at the glare Owen sent in his direction; instead focusing on Gwen, who was rummaging for some of Owen's industrial strength painkillers; when she found them and tipped three into the palm of his hand he almost smiled in relief; that was until Owen took two away from him.

"Owen!" He growled warningly, while Gwen and Ianto chorused their objection. Tosh just gave Owen a reproachful look, until he relented and gave Jack a second pill. When he swallowed them dry and held out his hand for the third Owen stood his ground.

"I will not have my patient high as a kite!" he exclaimed, "In your condition it could kill you. Permanently! Besides, you need to walk yourself to the SUV, 'coz there's no way either of us can manage to carry you." Jack nodded and prepared to get up; Owen placed a steadying hand on his shoulder until Ianto came over.

Jack grimaced as Ianto and Owen helped him to his feet, but shook off their help once he was standing. He had suffered worse than a few broken bones in his lifetime and the tight wrapping around his ribs helped a lot. The painkillers were also starting to kick in.

Back at the hub Owen checked the test results which had finished while they were out and swore loudly. "What is it?" said Jack stopping at the top of the stairs, (he didn't much fancy the challenge they would present in his current state). Owen deadpanned.

"You been playing games with any Radiation lately Captain?" Jack's face paled.

"What… what kind? Have I infected anybody?"

"I have no idea what kind; I've never seen it before. But no it isn't spreading- not enough of a concentrate left, just enough to make you sick." Jack came down the stairs painstakingly slowly and looked at the display screen; it showed the chemical formula of the radiation in his blood and the amounts in his blood. Jack recognised it- it was the Stat Radiation from the end of the universe.

"You know where you caught it?" Owen enquired, "Or better still- do you happen to have a cure? 'Coz I sure don't and it would take a hell of a long time to find and make somethin' from scratch."

"I'm not sure." Jack panted, "I have some, radiation tablets, which should do the trick. But, you'll have to replicate, the recipe, because I don't have enough of them, for a full treatment." He gasped. Jack wasn't going to say anything, but his ribs really hurt; he hadn't suffered enduring pain without death, since Saxon…"

"Jack!" Fortunately Owen interrupted his thoughts, "You'd better hurry up and get those tablets of yours, because we really haven't got long before you progress to the Latent Stage, and then we're in big shit."

"What happens when he reaches the Latent Phase?" asked Ianto from the balcony. He had been listening long enough to hear what was wrong with his lover, but he dreaded Owen's reply. Owen jumped at his sudden appearance before he typed a few strokes on his keyboard and a diagram was projected onto the white wall behind him.

"This is Jack's bone marrow normally," the picture changed, "this is his bones at the moment…" the picture changed for a third time, "And this is when the stem cells in his bone marrow will die." Owen looked very solemn, "The third and final stage will see our good captain suffering from dehydration and fever, possibly falling into a coma, convulsions and an electrolyte imbalance. Before it gets that bad, he'll at least be puking his guts up."

"I'll, go get those tablets…" said Jack gesturing towards his office. He returned about twenty minutes later, out of breath, with eight, tiny pink pills which were floating in a liquid silver substance. It had taken Jack a long time to climb up the stairs to his office, and longer to get down to his quarters; his ribs were now aching as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Owen" rasped Jack from the top of the stairs, holding up the storage capsule. When the doctor looked up, Jack tossed them to him, not wanting to move up or down anymore stairs. "Right, I'll start analysing these, and in the mean time, Jack- sit on the floor, with your back against the wall, I know your ribs hurt, so stop being a fucking hero and just sit down will you?"

Owen was just about to start his analysis when Ianto, after delivering coffees for everyone and pain killers for Jack, glanced at his watch. "Jack, we need to move. In about twenty minutes, our earlier selves are going to walk into the hub, with you and Captain John Hart for a debriefing on the cluster bombs. We'll leave about twenty minutes later and then not come back until now."

"I need to analyse these radiation pills in controlled conditions. I can't leave this running if we're likely to walk in any minute," said Owen looking up.

"Right, so we need to move and regroup. Once we've seen ourselves, leave for the bombs, we'll come back to collect any equipment we need." He paused to think, "Tosh and Gwen, could you come, over here for a moment please?" Jack called, remaining seated on the stairs to Owen's autopsy cum medical room.

As soon as Tosh and Gwen came over Jack indicated Ianto explain their dilemma to the two women. When he had finished Jack continued, having caught his breath. "Right, we need to make it look like we haven't been here, and we've got just under 15 minutes to do so. Gwen- you wipe the CCTV in the hub, from the last hour. Ianto, you're in charge of putting back, anything that we may have moved, since we arrived. Owen, is there any chance that analysis machine, of yours is portable?"

"Er, no Jack it's not, but there maybe one in a science lab somewhere in Cardiff…"

"Okay then, Tosh, I need you to work with Owen and find out where there is another machine that will do the same job, which we can hi-jack for the next 24 hours or so." The team scrambled and ten minutes later they left the hub and all bundled into the SUV. "Ianto, park us right there, next to the railings on the Plass."

"But Jack, we'll be able to see ourselves!"

"That is correct- and we did. Or at least I did. When I stepped onto the lift with John, the SUV was parked right here, so who am I to change history?"

Twenty minutes later the team watched themselves in fascination as they exited in pairs, Ianto and Jack taking the lift as they had done earlier that day. Jack waited a full ten minutes before saying anything. "Right, lets move, get the equipment you need and I want you all back here in five."

Five minutes later the five of them were bundled into the SUV, Ianto driving, Jack in the passenger seat, his breath still coming in short inhales. Owen was sitting between Gwen and Toshiko in the back seat.

"Right, Ianto; Gwen called ahead to the Ymchwil Centre; it's a medical Research Centre on the outskirts of Cardiff. They have a slightly lower tech analysis machine, but it should be sufficient for what Owen needs and they have a large number of chemicals which will enable Owen to recreate the tablets," said Tosh, loading the directions onto the intelligent Sat Nav.

By the time they had arrived Jack's condition had worsened further. He could barely stand on his own two feet and was leaning heavily on Ianto for support. Ianto practically carried him inside, with Gwen trying to help on his other side. It was Abaddon all over again.

When they entered the facility they were greeted and quickly led to a place where Owen could work and Jack could rest. There was a small, but clean observatory room with a bed where Jack could lie down and a fully equipped laboratory right next door.

In the centre of the laboratory a young lab assistant in white coat stood nervously. He introduced himself as Jeremy. "Right, Jeremy I'm Owen. I need your best analysis equipment and a computer for Tosh here to work on. Ianto next door will be keeping an eye on Jack, making sure he doesn't move."

"Yes sir, the machine is set up here and there is a computer on the other side of the room." Owen started his analysis of the second of the pink pills, the first having already been administered to Jack before they arrived.

He started by carefully prising a minute particle of it and diluting it. Next he put it into the analysis machine; it would take a long time to come up with accurate results, so Owen spent his time familiarizing himself with the lab equipment he might need and looking at his surroundings.

When the machine completed its first analysis Owen took at copy of the readout and sent it to Tosh to break down into familiar compounds, which he could use. As soon as Tosh had finished this, the two of them worked on breaking down the unfamiliar ingredients of the pill and splitting them into alien molecules. Next Owen used a programme which acted like an alien conversion table to work out the precise amounts of each ingredient he would need. Tosh had to hack into the hub's main frame externally to gain access to it, but it was faster and safer than Owen going to the hub to use the programme locally.

Once Owen had a list of all the ingredients he would need he gave it to Jeremy, who up until now had simply been watching in fascination and chatting with Gwen.

"Jeremy I need you to get me all the chemicals on this list. Gwen, unfortunately there are three on the list that are not from this century. Fortunately they'll be at the hub, in the alien chemical stores and one of them is in the hot house. I need you and Jeremy to go fetch them after you've found what you can here."

Gwen nodded and followed Jeremy over to a large storage room full to the brim with chemicals of every shape, type and colour you could imagine. They found what they could and gave them to Owen before leaving for the hub.

Owen meanwhile worked at measuring out each of the ingredients into separate canisters. It was a tricky little job, and he needed Tosh's help, because each ingredient had to be converted from intergalactic metrics into something Owen could understand.

After a short debate with herself, Gwen decided to take the SUV, so that she could use the blue flashing lights and get to the hub faster. Jeremy, while absolutely amazed with the equipment on board, had not tried to touch anything.

In fact the lab assistant was merely looking out of the tinted window to his left. Gwen decided to try talking to the young man. "So Jeremy, exciting job you must have working at the research centre. What do you normally do?" asked Gwen as she drove towards the hub.

"To be honest, it's pretty boring really. I'm only a junior researcher, so I mostly just make tea for everyone and do the fetching and carrying for experiments and stuff."

Gwen smiled, "You know Ianto used to be just like you. He worked as a junior researcher and made coffee; look at him now. He's one of the team, he still makes life saving coffee but he's more than just a Teaboy and he's very good at what he does."

"I guess. But everyone treats me like a receptionist and gofer all the time. Today has been the most exciting day ever for me, though I don't mean it at the expense of your colleague." They continued towards Raold Dahl Plass, with Jeremy and Gwen just enjoying one another's company.

It was only when they arrived at the tourist centre that the worry Gwen had pushed to the back of her mind surfaced. "We've got work to do;" said Gwen, quickly reaching over to press the hidden button under the desk, opening the hidden door to the hub.

Jeremy seemed fascinated by everything in the cavernous room, looking all around him with his mouth open, as they entered which allowed Gwen to quickly locate the ingredient from the hot house.

"The other chemicals are in here somewhere- do you know what they look like?" said Gwen calling Jeremy over to a large storage cupboard in the autopsy lab. "Let's see… yes there's one. Does anyone ever tidy up in here?"

"Er, no, 'cause as soon as Ianto does, Owen deliberately puts it all back the way it was. It's his 'creative chaos'… of sorts."

Just then Gwen's com link beeped and Tosh's voice came over the comms, "Gwen, how long 'till you get back? Owen's just waiting for those ingredients."

"Right, well we're almost done, tell Owen if he kept his creative chaos _tidy _then finding the ingredients he wants would be a lot easier!"

"You can pass on the message if you want, but I'll warn you- he's throwing tantrums already." Tosh replied.

"Right, have we got what we need?" asked Gwen, "Owen's started to throw his toys out the cot." To Tosh she added, "We're on our way now Tosh. We should be there in 15 minutes."

As soon as they arrived back, Gwen sent Jeremy to Owen in the laboratory with the chemicals and went to check on Jack. What she saw made her stomach twist in knots; she was shocked at his deteriorating state. Jack was lying, barely conscious and drenched in a feverish sweat, despite being only dressed in thin hospital scrubs (which stuck to his skin in all the right places…) Gwen shook the thought from her mind, now was _not_ the time. Their Captain, who was usually so strong, was struggling.

Perspiration had broken out across his forehead and an oxygen mask was now over his mouth and nose as he gasped quietly in his fitful sleep. Ianto was sat beside him, holding his lover's hand tightly in his own; his face dark, and lined with worry. Gwen watched Ianto's fingers tracing over Jack's knuckles as he whispered quiet comfort in Welsh, occasionally replacing the cold compression on his forehead. Gwen left the room quietly and went to find Owen, she felt like she had been invading on something private.

"How long till Jack can take another of those pills?" she asked Owen, "He looks terrible."

"I'll bring another one through now. I need to check on him again anyway, and ask him if he can work out how much of this stuff I need," said Owen, following Gwen towards the white walled room. She knocked quietly this time before entering quietly with Owen.

Ianto looked up when he saw them and released Jack's fingers. "Ianto, could you wake him up for me? I need to ask him something." Owen's voice was quiet, but there was no trace of worry in his voice. Ianto reached over and grasping Jack firmly by the shoulder he shook the older man awake.

Once roused, there was very little in Jack's demeanour that was recognisable as their fearless Captain. He moaned and opened his eyes, squinting in the bright lights from the room. "Jack, I need some help on one of the ingredients. Do you think you could work it out?" asked Owen stepping into view.

"Wha' what's the ingredient?" he asked, he voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. Ianto grasped a glass of water for him to drink and he cleared his throat.

"-Benomethanine; the intergalactic metric figure was 01.285, but I have no idea how much that is- it won't translate precisely enough into a unit I can use."

Jack sat up with Ianto's help and lifted his wrist, where his wrist band was still attached (Ianto had decided to leave it where it was- he had _never_ seen Jack without it on). "Have you got some?" he asked opening the cover of the vortex manipulator.

When Owen produced a small packet of the pale pink ingredient and an empty test tube, Jack opened a small panel along one side of his wrist strap. It was about the size of a Sim card; Jack tipped a generous pinch of the powder into it, pressed a combination of buttons and waited.

After a pause there was a series of beeps from the device and Jack carefully tipped the contents into the test tube, before slowly repeating the process. He did it a total of three times before he gave it back to Owen. "That's it." He said, putting the cover back over his wrist strap and sinking into the pillow.

Next Owen ran a series of medicals on Jack, by the end of which the man was exhausted. "I'll leave you to get some rest now, and get on to mixing this," said Owen leaving the Captain in the care of Ianto and returning to the lab with the Benomethanine. He just hoped Jack had done it right, in his current state. He returned to the lab, and began to work in earnest on the radiation pills.

Gwen and Tosh had been sitting in the lab, in silence for what felt like hours. They had tired of asking questions that were only answered in medi-babble which quickly left them with more questions than they had started.

Owen had been working on the formula himself, occasionally muttering under his breath while he worked. Tosh and Gwen felt completely useless, because they could no longer help him. Even Jeremy, who had initially been mixing the basic ingredients, had long ago finished his part.

Owen was currently mixing the mixture for about the fifth time. The ingredients were extremely volatile together and unless the mix was perfect they would dissolve the gelatine casing he was using and Owen had to start again with fresh ingredients.

So far Owen had successfully made three of the tablets, but they were of a lower concentration than the pink ones Jack had, so Owen needed to administer four of them at once in order for them to have the same result.

"Yes!" He burst out suddenly making both Gwen and Toshiko jump in their seats. "I've done it! Gwen- take these to Jack." He said holding out four gelatine capsules in a Petri dish. "Make sure he takes all of them. I'll work on making more."

Gwen quickly made her way into the room next door. Jeremy was in the room, and Gwen smiled as hope gleamed in his light brown eyes. Ianto helped Jack to swallow the capsules and they all sat down to wait for them to take effect on their Captain, who had promptly fallen asleep.

Half an hour later, Owen was on a role. He had replicated the recipe another six times, and the collection of gelatine capsules was growing steadily. He took a short break to check on Jack and administer the next dosage.

When roused, Jack seemed a little more lucid, but was still in a lot of pain. Owen gave him a stronger dosage of morphine, to replace his own painkillers. Once he had checked all Jack's vitals he returned to his work in the lab.

Jack was out of action for a total of 24 hours, by which time he was raring to go and was driving everyone crazy. Everyone that is, except Jeremy, who quite enjoyed the Captain's company, despite his constant flirting and innuendo.

Owen had insisted that Jack stay where he was in the bed until all the traces of the radiation had completely left his system, and absolutely nothing showed up in his blood stream, even though his ribs had now healed and there was nothing physically wrong with him.

* * *

**Hope you all enjoy, review if you can! ;) **

**BTW, if anyone can think of a suitable 'Jack innuendo' when Owen rips Jack's shirt off, let me know and I'll put it in the story! (I'm just not too good at this sort of thing myself!)**


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